Prime Time 3

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children are confident at this nursery. They explore the environment with familiarity and follow well-established routines. Older children take part in creating their own passport as part of a summer holiday themed activity. They draw themselves and describe the clothes they are wearing in the picture. They talk about the things they need to go on holiday and confidently suggest ideas such as sun hats and sun cream. Children talk about these items keeping them safe in the sun and stopping them from burning. Staff build on children's knowledge and talk to them about using a passport to go through security when going on an aeroplane. Children recall places they have been on holiday and talk about building sandcastles and going in the 'cold' sea.

Babies and toddlers show interest as they explore the texture of oats. They use spoons and other equipment to repeatedly fill pots with oats and watch them fall as they tip the oats out again. They develop their hand-eye coordination as they hold dolls and carefully collect oats on a spoon to feed them. Children say they are 'feeding the baby' and watch as the oats fall into the doll's mouth from the spoon.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Leaders have designed a curriculum based on familiar children's stories. They have considered how this supports children's learning in all areas of development. They particularly highlight that regularly sharing books with children develops a love of reading early on. This helps children to build a foundation for developing their early literacy skills.
• Staff generally know their key children well. They understand children's stage of development and what they need to learn next. Children make progress in their learning, as staff incorporate their next steps into the activities they plan. However, when children transition to another room, their new key person does not always know what children's learning targets are. This means that children do not always experience consistency in their learning.
• Children develop their independence skills well. Even very young children competently use cutlery to eat their meals. As children get older, they learn to take care of their personal care needs independently and confidently put their own shoes and coats on. Children are, therefore, prepared for their next stage of learning.
• Partnerships with parents are a substantial strength within the nursery. Leaders prioritise building strong relationships with parents and value their contribution to their children's learning. They make themselves available to discuss parental wishes and support parents to access services from local agencies where it is needed.
• Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are well supported.
• Gaps in children's development are identified and acted on swiftly. Staff liaise with external agencies to gain the right support for children and work closely with parents to keep them informed of any plans which are created for children.
• Parents speak highly of the nursery. They comment that staff are supportive and friendly. They feel their contributions to their children's experiences at nursery are valued. They say that children 'love' going to nursery and appreciate the daily communication they receive about what children have done during their day. They emphasise the progress their children have made since attending and know what they can do to help their children learn at home. This helps children experience consistency of care.
• Leaders have a good oversight of which areas of the nursery need to be improved. They hold supervision meetings with staff regularly to discuss professional development needs. They identify training which improves staff knowledge of general child development. However, this is not always focused specifically to the age of children staff work with. For example, staff working with younger children do not yet fully understand how best to support their development.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• strengthen the key-person system to ensure staff know their key children's learning targets when children transition to new rooms
• focus staff training more precisely to help staff understand the development stages of the age of children they work with.